Dubai: A Dubai visitor, who offered a Dh3,000 bribe to a policeman after being caught without a mask and flouting COVID-19 rules, has been sentenced to three months in jail.
The Dubai Court of First Instance fined the Indian defendant Dh5,000 and ordered deportation after he had served his jail term.
The incident happened during the national sterilisation programme in April this year. A policeman, who was patrolling the Jebel Ali area, saw the 24-year-old Indian defendant along with a woman outside a hotel. Both were not wearing face masks and failed to comply with precautionary measures to curb COVID-19. “I stopped them as they weren’t wearing a mask and were moving around without a permit, violating the movement restrictions in place. I told them that they need to have a permit and wear a mask. They told me that they went out walking,” said the policeman in official records.
The defendant told the policeman that the woman is a masseuse and that he brought her for a massage session for Dh200 at the hotel. He was stepping outside the hotel to pay the taxi fee when he was stopped by the policeman. “He begged me to let him go and offered me Dh3,000 to leave him without legal action. He told me that he will hand me Dh2,000 in cash and the rest of the bribe money delivered at the residence,” the policeman added.
After the policeman took the defendant to Jebel Ali police station, the defendant handed over Dh2,000 to the policeman. The policeman alerted his director and referred the defendant to prosecution for legal action.
